Baked Potato Soup

One of the few things I hate about cooking so many new and different recipes is that it sometimes leads to being wasteful. I try to minimize this as much as possible by buying the smallest quantity of something available, freezing whatever I can (space limited, of course), and trying to come up with ways to use the leftovers. Inevitably there will be some odds and ends that will go unused, but for the most part, I do my best to avoid filling the trash can with remnants of recipes past.

Last week I posted a recipe for potato skins, and after making them, I was left with most of the innards of four potatoes. What is a girl to do with leftover potato parts? Trust me when I tell you, no potato goes to waste here. I promise. I’m not big on homemade mashed potatoes since Simply Potatoes does it so much better than anything I’ve ever made or sampled from home, so I scoured the internet for something a little more interesting. Typically Ryan refuses to eat soups or stews of any kind, but he had a taste of some tortilla soup I had a couple weeks ago which seemed to warm him to the idea of a hearty soup. My hope was that this new found open-mindedness to soup coupled with his love for twice baked potatoes would produce a happy result. And, it did. This was a huge success.

Having the potatoes already baked was a huge help, and while I’m not sure I would have put the effort into baking the potatoes first in order to make soup, it was a great use of the leftover potatoes I did have. This became a great weeknight meal and was very warm and satisfying for a cold night. The only changes I would make in the future would be to cut back on the pepper just a little and to use a sharper cheese for mixing in to get an even cheesier flavor.

Now, on a slightly related note, does anyone have any ideas on what to do with leftover egg yolks? I really only prefer the white and usually end up dumping the yolks. The cartons of egg whites seem weird to me – can anyone attest for them?

The soup sounds really good. I’m usually pretty good with reusing leftovers in new ways (or at least dump them in a salad, haha).
Leftover egg yolks? If they’re fresh, you can use them to bake. Sometimes the recipes call for egg yolks only. I usually freeze mine for this use.I’ve also used the liquid whites before. If they’re 100% egg whites, they taste right. :)

That soup looks great! I buy the carton of egg whites all the time. Nothing to feel strange about! As for left over yolks, you can freeze them to use for something another time. Ice creams, custards, making baking recipes…